Cracking open the North Shore

Alert: Looking for help on locating striper hotspots on the North Shore, Mass only?

Requirements: An hour from Boston, no boat required, public parking within reasonable walking distance

Challenge: I've never had a day/night like on the Vineyard where the action has been fast and furious, with big bass in the mix. I've had reasonable success at Pavilion Beach, and along the beaches in Manchester (Singing, Black/White, etc), but nothing dramatic.

Promise: If I hook into them, I'll give you credit in my posts for turning me on to the spot!

July 4, 2006 on MV

The Vineyard is in full swing for Striper fishing!

I fished Thursday and Friday night, hitting all my regular haunts including the bridges on State Beach, East Beach and Lake Tashmoo. On Thursday night, all the action was at Lake Tashmoo. Stripers were breaking the surface everywhere, attacking the sand eels. The action didn't start until late, after midnight, and continued until the skies opened up around 2'ish. The wind was tough and coming straight at you, but persistence did pay off.

The next night I started fishing much earlier, around 8:00. The majority of the next night's action was at State Beach. I caught a lot of fish, including a nice keeper and one just under.

All were caught on intermediate line w/ a sand eel fly. My brother turned me on to a new sand eel imitation, the one mentioned in my last post. It's tied by someone in Maine and looks exactly like the real thing. From now on, I'm going to refer to it as Striper Crack! I've used many, many sand eel imitations, some w/ great success, but nothing compares to this version.